This episode of About Your Mother is my conversation with Steph Jagger: a seeker, explorer, and writer. Her latest book, Everything Left to Remember, documents her adventure with her mother into the Rocky Mountains while they navigate the terrain of dementia and the meaning of remembrance.

Steph’s life and work are as deep as the 4 million vertical feet she skied in one year to break a world record. That journey is the basis of her first book Unbound: A story of Snow and Self-discovery. Her latest book examines her journey and transition from maiden to mother.

Steph is an ideal guest for About Your Mother as her latest book perfectly encapsulates the transition many of us make from maiden to mother. It also asks, who am I with my mother and who am I without her?

“Unbound was a book that came out in 2017. It was about a ski journey I took in 2010 to 2011. And really, on so many fronts, that was what I would consider my maiden voyage, the maiden voyage in the world of who am I without all of the roles I played in my teens and 20s.” – Steph Jagger

That journey allowed Steph to explore her power to affect the world through her actions, which to her is a quintessential question that a maiden might think.

We talk about Steph’s stance on memoirs; they do not always have to come from a broken place, and sometimes it can just be a journey of self-discovery and learning to love yourself.

“I think this specifically for female written memoir; I am a big, big believer that we need stories, a multitude of them for a multitude of different voices. And we need stories that tell us how to pick up the pieces when life shatters. But I think as women, we also need stories of how to love ourselves into our own bigness, even if something hasn’t shattered.” – Steph Jagger

She also adds that it is essential that we share stories of women in their maiden or formative years because those are the years when women are most unsure of themselves.

In the summer of 2015, Steph’s mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Ten months later, Steph and her mother went on a road trip together, and she wrote about this journey in her book.

As her mother’s memory begins to fade, the threads between mother and daughter become distinct. It made Steph think of the questions, “Who am I to her,” and “Who am I without her?”

“I believe there is a deep question in all of us: ‘Well, shit, like, what will hold us now?’ And really, that was ultimately the question. The question I was asking with my mom as we were moving through this journey.” – Steph Jagger

To hear more from Steph Jagger and her transition from being a maiden to mother, download and listen to this episode.

Steph Jagger is a best-selling memoirist of two books. Her first, Unbound: A Story of Snow & Self-Discovery was published in 2017. Her second, a mother-daughter story called Everything Left to Remember is due out in April of 2022.

Outside of being an author, Steph a sought-after mentor and coach whose offerings guide people toward a deeper understanding of themselves and their stories.

All of her work, including speaking and facilitating, lies at the intersection loss, the nature of deep remembrance, and the personal journey of re-creation.

Steph grew up in Vancouver, Canada and currently lives and works on Bainbridge Island, WA.

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Order her new book here: Everything Left to Remember